Hello everyone! Happy Easter to those who celebrate, happy Passover to those who celebrate that, and generally happy Sunday to all!

I know I haven't been around in... well... forever. I still lurk on LJ from time to time, and I really miss the camaraderie of the old days. LJ has become a bit of a ghost town, which makes me sad, since I've interacted (and even met) some amazing people here. I'm not on Tumblr at this point, since it lacks the communication aspect that LJ has, although I do check out gifs there from time to time.

My life is okay at the moment. I'm still taking care of my elder, sick parents, which can be challenging, but they are fairly stable at the moment (at least physically... sigh... although I think they conspire to drive me crazy). The current job (that I moved for about two years ago) is still fine. I don't love it, per se, but I don't hate it either, and I work with some lovely people, so that's all good. The job will last a maximum of another two years, but I can leave before that... so I'm starting to think about getting my butt in gear and searching for a new one. I haven't done much of that recently, but I don't like the uncertainty hanging over my head. I'm lucky in that I know the time frame that I'm working within, and can start to take proactive steps.

Fandom-wise, I haven't been writing, but I'm actually getting to the point that I really miss it. I think I needed a mental break from... everything (writing, job searches, life)... and it was all I could do to get through the day dealing with work and caring for my parents. But now I'm feeling the itch to work on unfinished stories. I actually just signed up for AO3 (no idea why I didn't do that earlier), and may spend part of today beginning to archive my fics there. That may inspire me even more to start writing more, since I'm finding that I quite miss it.

All in all, life is okay. I've missed interacting with you and I hope that everyone is happy and doing well.

Author’s Note: SPOILERS for Episode 6.18, “Lauren” specifically and Season 6 generally. Many thanks to kuriadalmatia for her awesome beta job.

I’m super-excited about this story, because it is the first fic that I have completed since December. Woo hoo! Of course it’s an angsty one, but still… it’s a finished fic. Damn you, real life, for interfering with my writing abilities. Hopefully, things have settled down and more fics will follow soon.

This takes place in my Five Dinners universe, but can stand alone. (All “Five Dinners” stories can be found here).

The Burden of SilenceBy Daylyn

Watching his lover break down in JJ’s arms was more than Aaron could bear. He had to get away – away from Spencer, whose hurt and despair poured out of him; away from his team, who trusted him and who he was betraying with his terrible silence; away from JJ, who spoke the lie and led the team down a false path of pain and despair and anguish.

Aaron felt like he couldn’t breathe.

He could barely hear JJ’s words when she found him, and he mouthed the terrible platitude that he knew that they had to keep up the façade. He wondered how he was supposed to face them. He wondered how he was supposed to face Spencer and hold him in his arms, kiss him, make love to him, while knowing that he was perpetrating the ultimate atrocity – a betrayal of Spencer’s trust. How was he supposed to return to their job, their home, their sanctuary, and go on, day after day, lie after lie?

A magnitude 8.9 earthquake has hit Japan, generating a massive tsunami along its north coast, which looked like it caused significant damage. The force of the wave was... astonishing. According to the USGS, there are widespread tsunami warnings for numerous countries.

For me personally, the USGS indicates that there is a tsunami watch in effect for the coastal areas of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska from the California-Mexico border to Chignik Bay, Alaska. I suppose this information will be updated once the wave is assessed as it crosses the Pacific. I live on the coast of California. If a tsunami hits California, it will hit here. In fact, where I currently live is known to be one of the worst places to be in Los Angeles if an tsunami hits.

I guess I'm not getting much sleep tonight in case I have to evacuate.

But most importantly, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Japan.

In other life updates, I'm likely moving from here at the end of the month due to having lost my job at the end of last year. I'm not entirely sure where I'm going (I'm waiting to find out about a job in central California. If that doesn't work out... I really don't know what I'm doing. Why yes, I'm stressed (which is why I haven't updated at all in quite some time). However, I'm definitely moving inland away from the coast (maybe way inland like to the Washington DC area -- hey, there's much less likelihood of a tsunami hitting there).

:)

Ah... it's going to be a long night.

ETA: According to the Los Angeles Times, California could see small waves on Friday morning (local time) which could cause some unusually high tides but not major inundations. That's a relief, although I'll keep checking on that to make sure there's no change. My thoughts and well wishes definitely go out to everyone impacted.

ETA2: California has actually been upgraded to a tsunami warning, which means "significant widespread inundation is imminent or expected". However, sea levels are only expected to rise off the coast of California by less than a foot and people are being told to stay away from the ocean on Friday morning (local time). No evacuation order has been issued for coastal residents (at this point).

ETA3: 8:42am PST: We're expecting tsunami surges of around 2-4 feet throughout this morning and the beaches are closed, but there's no evacuation. Cannot believe the damage caused in Japan. Just... wow. I've only slept sporadically throughout the night. I think I'm going to try and get some sleep now.

Copy and Paste if you have enjoyed the blessing of meeting people online that you never would have met any other way. This is an end of the year shout out to the many friends I have never been in the same room with but who have inspired, amused, comforted, encouraged, and touched me in so many ways. Here's to another year together.

I want to thank you all for your encouragement and support throughout the year. I’ve been blessed to actually meet a few fandom people in person (the awesome jamie2109 in Australia and the wonderful fabrisse in Washington DC, and have spoken extensively to the_callum in Berlin (although we haven’t met yet, we will someday, my twin).) Nonetheless, I will likely never be in the same room with most of you. However, you have inspired me and encouraged me and “listened” to me. I’m not the most “open” of people and have difficulties in expressing my emotions, especially when I’m down. But whenever I have gone on a rant, my awesome LJ friends have been there. I thank you all!

As an aside, my job officially ended last Wednesday. While I have no idea what I’m going to do, and am a bit worried (okay, a lot), there’s a part of me that is giddy with relief that the job is over. There were times, especially over the last seven months or so, when I would be sitting in the office at 11:00 pm or later, the only person still in the building except for the cleaning crew (and they were on the way out), with several more hours of work to do, and thinking to myself, “This job is killing me.” Not a great thought, really. It’s not that I mind working hard, or working late. But… working hard and late ALL THE TIME with no appreciation, knowing that your days were numbered at the job, and having the bosses you work for not appreciate anything you did got to be a little grinding. I essentially worked for two men – one would pile on more the twice the amount of work than what he was supposed to and then he would leave at noon while I was stuck there until after midnight and working weekends, the other would complain (usually behind my back) if he disagreed with my work product, refused to speak to me, and would sneer at me when I dropped off the work. Yeah, it was pretty damn crazy and unpleasant.

And now it’s over. I’m okay with that. Really, I am.

But you all have listened as I bitched and been there as I whined and encouraged me. And read my fics (which makes me happier than you can know). My dear flist – you are AWESOME. Thank you all.

So, at 2:11 pm yesterday, I decided to get over my holiday funk and stop ignoring the existence of the holidays. So, at 2:11 pm yesterday, I went out and bought a Christmas tree. I forced convinced my father to come over and help decorate it while my mother (who really isn't feeling well) supervised. So now I have a tree. And I may put up more decorations today (yeah, yeah... whatever about the timing). Oh, and I got to see the end of my favorite version of Scrooge with Albert Finney and the Christmas cartoon with the Burgermeister Meisterburger, so Christmas Eve was made of win.

All in all, I'm ignoring everything that sucks in my life (like the fact I'm losing my job next Wednesday) and feeling all festive and full of holiday cheer.

So, my dear flist, MERRY CHRISTMAS to those who celebrate and a happy holiday season to all.

Oh, and it's okay that since I just put my tree up, that I leave it up until February Twelfth Night, right?

Gacking the Alphabet Meme from just about everyone, since I’ve read some GREAT little fics from it, my life is falling apart, and I need a distraction.

This is how it works:

1. Pick a letter.2. Pick a prompt that starts with that letter (ex. P is for Porn).3. Pick a fandom and a character/pairing/platonic relationship.

-You can claim up to two letters and you can't claim a letter that's already claimed.

-Fandoms/Pairings: Criminal Minds, Hotch/Reid is the only pairing I feel up to writing at the moment, but I’m willing to do gen and/or character perspectives from any of the characters.Sherlock Holmes (book verse, although I might be convinced to try BBC Sherlock), Holmes/Watson is the preferred pairing, but I’m willing to do gen and other characters too.

Just note that it may take me a while to get everything written.

-Anyone can request. Don't be shy! :)

ETA: I plan to fill the requests in the order they were received. So please be patient.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends (and to my non-American friends... happy Thursday!) Hope your day is filled with warmth and love (and lots of yummy food... and not too much family drama).

Summary: Reid doesn’t believe it when Prentiss tells him that Hotch was jealous at the train station. Turns out Emily was right.

Author’s Note: SPOILERS for Episode 6.08, "Reflection of Desire”. When I saw that scene in the train station where Hotch is all jealous annoyed that Reid is watching pretty women distracted while working, I knew I had to write this. Which is awesome, because it’s the first creative spark I’ve felt in months. (Now I have to go work on the other fics that I owe.)

This takes place in my Five Dinners universe, but can stand alone. (All “Five Dinners” stories can be found here).

Watching JealousyBy Daylyn

“That was pretty rude of you this afternoon, you know.”

Spencer turned his head from where he was looking out the SUV window toward Emily, who was driving. “Excuse me.”

“This afternoon. At the train station. What you did was pretty rude.”

Spencer blinked quickly, trying to discern her meaning. He failed. “Okay, I know I have an eidetic memory and should get this but… what are you talking about?”

“Gawking at the women, Reid. It was rude.”

Spencer managed to suppress rolling his eyes. Barely. “Sorry if it offended you,” he said in a tone that implied anything but. He went back to looking out the window for any sign of the UnSub’s car.

“Oh, not me. I couldn't care less,” Prentiss said. “But, seriously Reid, ogling other people while standing next to your lover is just not done. I know from personal experience that it can be… upsetting.”

Summary: During the midst of a difficult case, Aaron and Spencer take a break at the hotel.

Author’s Note: Part of my Five Dinners universe, although this fic can stand alone. (All “Five Dinners” stories can be found here). General SPOILERS through Season 5.

Although I don’t think that writing smut is my strong point, I nonetheless had this idea for a hotel story. So I thought, ‘Hey, I’ll write smut anyway.’ Yet even my smut has a wee bit of angst. *sigh* But, really, it’s basically just smut. Of course, I did just stay up to 4:30 in the morning to finish this. Um... yeah... I think I should go to bed now.

RespiteBy Daylyn

Spencer Reid paced about in his hotel room, occasionally glancing at the photos of the latest victim. The team had been in this smallish-sized town in the middle of nowhere out West for close to a week, in search of a serial killer who tortured his victims horribly before finally murdering them. The team told themselves that they had made some progress, but with the discovery of a new body today Spencer privately felt that they were further away from finding the killer than ever.

Spencer shuddered. He was used to seeing death in all its myriad forms, but there was something about the victim that had been found this afternoon that had gotten under his skin. He and Rossi had gone to the crime scene in an industrial area to examine where Victim Number 5 had been literally dumped. She was young, early twenties maybe. Pretty. But it was the bruising that indicated how she had been tied down, how she couldn’t escape her torment, which had made Spencer shiver.

Sometimes he hated his job.

So he paced his hotel room, looking at times at the crime scene photos because Victim Number Five deserved to be remembered. But he felt he was slowly going stir crazy. Part of it, he knew, the lack of progress on the case. Part of it, he knew, was his empathizing with the victim and the feeling of being tied down, unable to escape one’s fate. And part of it, he knew, was the length of time the case was taking and the fact… the fact that he missed Hotch.

Well, actually it was Aaron he missed. Hotch he saw everyday as his supervisor. ( Read more...Collapse )

I'm not quite sure what to make of that. I mean, I survived my Joyce class in college (my final paper I did for my bachelor's degree was a 50 page monstrosity on the use of animals in Ulysses. Um... yeah...)

Okay, I think I'm actually amused by the comparsion. Now I can go write stream of consciousness... er... stuff. Oh wait, that's what I'm doing.

Title:Five Six Times that a Team Member (and Jack) Saw Aaron and Spencer Kiss, and One of Many, Many Times No One DidAuthor: DaylynFandom: Criminal MindsRating: R (FRM)Pairing: Hotch/Reid Word Count: ~ 9,150Word Count: Angst, fluff, melancholia (and angst and fluff).Disclaimer: All characters belong to their copyright holders. No profit is intended.

Summary: Aaron and Spencer kiss throughout the years.

Author’s Note: Part of my Five Dinners universe, although this fic can stand alone. (All “Five Dinners” stories can be found here). General SPOILERS through Season 5.

My first “five times plus one” story, although I miscalculated somehow and added a scenario for Jack, so technically it’s a “six times plus one” story (yeah, I must have been tired when I outlined the fic and counting to five was somehow beyond me).

Five Six Times that a Team Member (and Jack) Saw Aaron and Spencer Kiss, and One of Many, Many Times No One DidBy Daylyn

JJ

JJ wasn’t sure what had woken her from where she lay curled up on the couch on the jet. She blinked blearily and then heard a faint rustle. She saw that Reid was moving to sit across from Hotch near the back of the plane.

“Hi,” Reid said quietly.

JJ couldn’t see Hotch’s face, but she could see his clenched fist on the table in front of him.

“What do you want, Reid?” Hotch said, his voice tight.

JJ suppressed a sigh. It had been a rough case. It was always rough when it involved children, and this had been particularly hard. The UnSub had been abducting kids from day care centers, specifically targeting children of single parents. He then killed them. He said, when the BAU team finally caught him, that he was ‘saving them’ from the horror and disappointment of growing up alone with parents who was too busy to care for them.

Hotch had been on edge since that custodial interview.

“Do you want to talk about it,” Reid murmured to Hotch. “The rest of the team is asleep.”